


A Thousand Teeth

by bluejoseph



Series: Hozier is nice [2]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, Death, End of the World, Guns, Happy Ending, Hozier, M/M, Murder, War, a cat named bean, a lot of body horror, believe it or not, songfic?, suicide??? they go willingly to their deaths, this sounds really violent and scary but it's mostly sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-17 11:10:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17559260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluejoseph/pseuds/bluejoseph
Summary: I have never known hunger like these insects that feast on meA thousand teeth, and yours among them, I know





	A Thousand Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> I lay in bed one morning, listening to In A Week and thinking about how peaceful it would be to give my body back to the land when I eventually die (ik that sounds kinda scary but I promise I'm ok I'm just weird) and this fic was born from that

Life is inherently chaotic, whether you choose to believe it or not. There comes times when the chaos quiets, yes, but ultimately it reigns triumphant again. What is one day, with its ups and downs, compared to a month, with its ups and downs; a year, a lifetime? There are lulls and surges in our tides, and we inevitably find ourselves tossed about through the waves, no matter how hard we may try to swim.

Tyler, like most others, had known plenty of chaos. But here, now, he knew peace.

He had never felt like this before. He was not afraid, as he had been for so long. Even with Josh at his side, he had been afraid. The chaos in the world frightened him, had especially in the last few months. World leaders at each other's throats, people fighting and rioting and killing without showing any signs of remorse. There was so much needless murder.

Tyler's family, indeed, had been killed. His parents; murdered at their small drugstore for their supplies. His brothers; murdered in one of the worst wars humanity had ever seen. His sister; murdered for walking, just walking, down the street.

The only reason Tyler hadn’t lost all desire to live was Josh. Josh, with his curly brown hair that hadn’t all fallen out yet, his skin peeling off his arms and back and shoulders, his lungs worn and filled with liquid from the toxins in the air. Josh was a mess. Tyler didn’t care. 

Maybe it was because he was because he was a mess, too. Maybe it was because everyone was a mess these days. Maybe it was because he loved Josh for who he was.

In any case, Josh kept Tyler alive. He stayed with him when he couldn’t get out of bed, when his eyelashes fell out, when his fingernails peeled off like they were hangnails. And Tyler loved him for it.

They were together now, too. There had been many bombs, but none so close to them before. Tyler hadn’t seen them, but he had heard them, and felt their impact in the Earth. Each explosion was a wound, and Tyler felt them all.

The air was black when they finally stopped falling. Tyler couldn’t see very well anymore, but Josh could, and he described what everything looked like from the window. He always had an unusual way of describing things.

“It’s like…” Josh snapped his fingers, wincing slightly at the pain as his skin tore. “Pulmonary monexic systemia.”

“What?” Tyler’s voice, as creaking and worn as the mattress, rose from their bed.

“It’s a respiratory disease. Your lungs work in reverse. They take the carbon dioxide in when you breathe and start pumping oxygen out.” Josh hesitated. “The sky looks like it’s stopped trying to clear itself up. It’s taking in the poison.”

Tyler said nothing. He was very weak these days. He had sores in his mouth, his hair was all gone. Josh was a little better, but not much.

“I think…”

“You-” Tyler broke off to cough into his elbow, several times. It did nothing to make him feel better, and he found himself unable to stop.

Slowly, Josh rose from his chair by the window and came to Tyler’s bedside, running his trembling hand up and down his arm as gently as he could. Tyler coughed and wheezed and struggled to catch his breath again. It took him a few minutes, but he was finally able to stop.

“You think…” he trailed off. He was able to speak now, but he was unwilling and unable to say what they were both thinking out loud.

Josh was quiet for a long time. Tyler was so tired. He wanted to sleep. He couldn’t, though, not as long as his love was still awake. It was difficult for him to keep his eyes open.

“I think we should go out and lay in the grass,” Josh said finally. He was smiling kindly, softly. “What do you think?”

Tyler blinked slowly. “I don’t know if I can get up.”

“Nonsense.” The healthier of the two wrapped an arm around Tyler’s shoulder. “I’ll help you. Ready?” At his nod, Josh lifted Tyler. They both grimaced with the pain, with the effort of movement, but they made it up. The bed where Tyler had laying was dirty and soaked with little patches of blood. He was glad he would never have to sleep there again.

“See?” Easy.” Josh smiled again, and he helped Tyler to stand.

Tyler wasn’t sure how long it took them, but they did finally make it outside. The sky, true to Josh’s description, was black as coal. 

He took them to their little garden out back, where they’d had parties and cookouts and summer gatherings before. Now, most of their plants were dead, and there was a fine layer of ash dusting the yard.

Tyler hurt all over, but he stayed quiet as Josh gently laid him down. The grass was mostly dead now, crunchy brown and almost orange in the light. He was afraid, and he tightened his grip on Josh’s hand. His love smiled at him, sad, and squeezed his hand back, laying down next to him.

Tyler didn't know if there was still a sun in the sky, but if there was, he couldn't see it. He felt a little dizzy, both from the exertion of getting there and from staring straight upwards, like there was no earth at all; just emptiness. 

Tyler didn’t want to think about the sky. He slowly pulled Josh’s hand up to his mouth, kissing his knuckles for a moment before resting their entwined fingers on his chest, over his heart. 

“Sweet boy,” Josh said with a smile. “Should we say something, do you think?”

He pondered this for a moment, moving his other hand up to wipe some ashes from his fragile, bleeding eyelids. If Josh was going to be calm about this, then so was he. “Don’t know.”

“Hmm.” The stronger of the two shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “I think I’d like to say that you’re still beautiful, to me.”

Tyler frowned. “I don’t think that word fits. ‘Beautiful’, I mean.”

“How about ‘lovely’, then?”

He blinked, and nodded. “Yeah. That’s okay.”

“Okay.”

“I wanna say something, too.” He swallowed, slowly. “I’d like to say that I love you. And I hope we get to see Bean,” he added, recalling their pet, a small black and white cat. He’d died a few months ago, too weak to survive the toxic air, and with so little food to eat. 

“I love you, too.” Josh squeezed his hand. “And I miss him, too. I bet he’s looking down on us right now.”

“Are you kidding?” Tyler snorted a little. “That cat was mean. He’s probably staring up at us and shaking his little paw like a fist.”

Josh laughed, then, and Tyler reveled in his small triumph. They could hardly breathe, and they looked like zombies, and he could still make Josh laugh.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, after that. They breathed in the air, as much as they could get, laying there together in their decaying yard, staring up at a sunless sky. 

“The flowers look nice,” Josh commented finally, eyes empty and chest barely stirring. A cockroach landed on his cheek, and he didn’t try to shoo it away. 

Tyler frowned. The yard was dead, there weren’t any flowers. There hadn’t been for months.

And then he felt something. Grass, soft and damp under his empty hand. He touched it slowly, softly, marveling at how peaceful he suddenly felt. The grass seemed like a blanket, yielding gently to him as he lay on it.

Little pieces came to him, one by one. A soft breeze on his cheek; the sweet smell of the earth; the warmth of the sun; a ladybug, landing on his knee; and finally, finally, the sky. It was blue. It was blue with big, puffy white clouds like sheep. 

And there were flowers, too. Purple, blue, yellow, all around him. Bumblebees buzzed lazily around them, their fuzzy bodies making the plants dip for a moment as they landed, before flying away again.

Tyler sat up, and found that it did not hurt to do so. He stretched out his legs, sighed, and at last, he smiled.

“See?” Josh, sitting next to him, pulled Tyler’s hand to his heart, pressed a kiss to his temple. “Flowers.”

Tyler nodded, shutting his eyes for a moment and feeling the breeze ruffle his short hair, tug gently at the cuff of his sleeve. There were birds singing, somewhere in the distance, and he thought he could hear a babbling brook close by.

“Nice day, isn’t it?” 

“Yes,” Tyler said. And it was.

**Author's Note:**

> We'll lay here for years or for hours  
> Thrown here or found, to freeze or to thaw  
> So long we'd be come the flowers  
> Two corpses we were, two corpses I saw.  
> And they'd find us in a week  
> When the weather gets hot  
> After the insects have made their claim  
> I'll be home with you, I'll be home with you.


End file.
